Systems and Methods of Measuring Communication Performance

ABSTRACT

The disclosure is generally directed to a system and method of measuring transport utilization of data that is to be multiplexed and transmitted over a digital transport facility. In a particular embodiment, the system includes a traffic management reporting device to provide a report including performance information. The performance information is determined based on a count of stuff bits included in a user data frame having a fixed size payload.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims priority from and is a Continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/630,051, filed on Dec. 3, 2009 andentitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF MEASURING DATA TRANSPORT UTILIZATION,”which is a divisional of and claims priority from U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/708,416, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,649,849,filed on Feb. 20, 2007 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHOD FOR MEASURINGTRANSPORT UTILIZATION,” which is a continuation of and claims priorityfrom U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/319,216, filed on Dec. 13,2002, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,221,685 and entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEMRELATING TO BANDWIDTH UTILIZATION,” which are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to bandwidth utilizationmeasurement.

BACKGROUND

Management and operation of a large scale distributed communicationnetwork has a high degree of complexity. To address the complexity ofmanaging such distributed communication networks, many computer toolsand other automated methods have been developed. As part of the networkmanagement process, various network management and equipment usagereports have been developed and routinely produced. For certain opticalnetwork high speed data communication equipment, measurement of trafficutilization on specific transport facilities is desirable. Conventionalmethods to determine such traffic utilization have involved intrusivetechniques such as inserting probes or nonuser test data into thecommunication network to sample the optical or electrical facilitycapacity usage. It would be desirable to provide a useful networktraffic utilization report without the disadvantages involved with suchintrusive techniques.

Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method fordetermining data transport utilization.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is generally directed to a system and method ofmeasuring transport utilization of data that is to be multiplexed andtransmitted over a digital transport facility. In a particularembodiment, the system includes a traffic management reporting device toprovide a report including performance information. The performanceinformation is determined based at least in part on a count of stuffbits included in a user data frame having a fixed size payload.

In another embodiment, a user data frame is disclosed. The user dataframe includes a traffic portion that is used to handle communication ofuser data and an unused portion including a set of stuff bits arrangedin a detectible pattern. A count of the stuff bits is associated with ameasure of transport utilization of a data communication channel overwhich the user data frame is transported.

In another embodiment, a communication system is disclosed. Thecommunication system includes a data multiplexing device that includes afirst input data channel and a multiplexed output. The first input datachannel is associated with a first user data frame that has a fixed sizedata payload. The first user data frame includes a first traffic portionincluding first user data and a first unused portion that includes afirst set of stuff bits. The communication system also includes anelement manager coupled to the data multiplexing device. The elementmanager is configured to provide a measurement report that includes anindication of a utilization associated with the first input datachannel. The indication is based at least in part on a count of thefirst set of stuff bits.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates an embodiment of a systemthat includes a multiplexer with bit stuffing and measurement logic.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart that illustrates a method of determining trafficutilization of elements within a communication system.

FIG. 3 is a general diagram that illustrates a portion of a data frame.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, a data communication system 100 is disclosed. Thecommunication system 100 includes a data multiplexer 102, a digitalfacility 104, and a demultiplexer 106. The multiplexer 102 includes aplurality of input channels 108, 120, 122, and 124. The multiplexer 102also includes digital bit-stuffing and measurement logic 110. The datamultiplexer 102 has a multiplexer output 112 that is coupled to thedigital communication transport facility 114. The communication system100 also includes an element manager 104 that is coupled to themultiplexer 102. The element manager 104 provides an output performancereport 116 that includes traffic utilization information 118. Theelement manager 104 may be implemented as a software module within apersonal computer device. The performance report 116 may be a printedreport or may be provided at a display device coupled to the elementmanger 104. The system 100 also includes a remote demultiplexer 106coupled to a far end of the digital facility 114. The demultiplexer hasa multiplexed input 128 and a plurality of demultiplexed output channels126.

During operation, user data frames are received by the data multiplexer102 from the input communication channels, such as a first input channel108. The user data frames from the plurality of input channels aremultiplexed to produce a multiplexed datastream at the multiplexeroutput 112. Where the input channels have unused data bandwidth, paddingbits are stuffed into the available data frames so that the multiplexeroutput 112 has the appropriate fixed data payload size. The multiplexedoutput 112 carries a higher bandwidth, higher data speed communicationsignal than any of the individual input channels. The multiplexed dataoutput signal is communicated over the digital facility 114 to theremote demuliplexer device 106. The demultiplexer 106 receives themultiplexed signal, demultiplexer the multiplex signal, to produceindividual user data frames 126.

The element manager 104 receives communication measurement utilizationinformation from the multiplexer 102. This information is derived fromand determined by the number of unused padding bits that are stuffedinto each of the user data frames to create the fixed payloadmultiplexed output signal. The element manager 104 receives thebit-stuffing and measurement information and produces an integratedtraffic performance report 116 that includes the measured trafficutilization information disclosed as traffic utilization element 118.The traffic utilization information is conveniently provided to anetwork operator and includes capacity availability of each of theindividual communication channels carried by the digital facility 114.In this manner, a user of the network may advantageously determine datacommunication capacity without the inconvenience of dedicated probetests or other intrusive testing methods. An example of the digitalfacility 114 that is supported includes facilities such as DS1, DS3,VT1.5, STS-1, STS-3, and OC-3 facilities.

With the disclosed system 100, traffic utilization is measured usingreal-time calculation of bandwidth based on time division multiplex(TDM) frame stuff-bit information determined during the framing andmultiplexing stage.

The disclosed system 100 takes advantage of the scenario where the userdoes not issue sufficient traffic to fill the allocated data payload ofa particular frame. In this scenario, the data frame is padded withstuff bits so that the payload bytes are comprised of both user trafficand/or the stuff bits. By counting the stuff bits and subtracting thenumber of stuff bits from the fixed payload, the amount of trafficinformation can be discerned for each data frame. The stuff bits arearranged in a detectible binary pattern to facilitate detection andcounting within the measurement logic 110. By aggregating the trafficover time intervals, whether for a single frame or for many frames overseveral minutes, the traffic utilization may be measured and reported.By reporting the traffic utilization, for example for each provisionedelectrical or optical facility, the multiplexer 102 delivers to anetwork operator a useful measurement report 116 regarding trafficutilization. The disclosed system 100 may be used to monitor TDM andSONET interoffice facility (IOF) loop bandwidth usage on a real-timebasis, both on the IOF loop and customer drops.

The bandwidth usage data that is reported may be used to assist networkplanners, marketing and sales personnel to better understand bandwidthand network bottlenecks and usage patterns to improve planning forfuture capacity needs. In addition, reported traffic statistics may beused to improve the network owner's ability to market communicationservices to customers that may be better informed of capacity exhaustiveconditions. Additional information regarding traffic usage can also beprovided to customers as an enhanced service so that customers may makeappropriate decisions regarding their own bandwidth capacity and usagepatterns.

Referring to FIG. 2, a method of measuring transport utilization of datato be multiplexed and transmitted over a digital transport facility isdisclosed. The method includes a step of receiving a user data frame atthe multiplexer, at 202. Padding stuff bits are then inserted into theunused portion of the user frame prior to multiplexing, at 204. Atraffic utilization measurement is then determined based on the numberof stuff bits and based on the size on the fixed payload, at 206. Thetraffic utilization measurement is then reported at 208.

Referring to FIG. 3, a further detailed portion of a representative userframe, such as frame 108 is disclosed. The portion of the user frameincludes a user data portion 302 and a stuff bit portion 304. The dataframe 108 has a fixed size payload 310. In addition, for determiningtraffic measurement utilization, the user data frame has a used portion306 and an unused portion 308. By comparing the number of stuff bits 304in the unused portion 308 with respect to the size of the fixed payload310, a determination may be made regarding utilization of the dataframe. The portion of user data may be determined by subtracting thenumber of stuff bits 304 from the known fixed size of the payload 310.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments which fall within thescope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed bylaw, the scope of the present invention is to be determined by thebroadest permissible interpretation of the following claims and theirequivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoingdetailed description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a processor; and a memorythat stores instructions that are executable by the processor to performoperations comprising: reporting performance information, wherein theperformance information is determined based at least in part on a countof stuff bits included in a user data frame having a fixed size payload;and communicating with a data multiplexer that comprises measurementlogic that determines the count of stuff bits.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the data multiplexer further comprises a plurality of inputs anda multiplexed output.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein each of theplurality of inputs is responsive to a corresponding data communicationchannel of a plurality of data communication channels, and wherein theplurality of data communication channels is multiplexed to produce themultiplexed output.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein each of theplurality of data communication channels has an associated trafficmeasurement that is based on a corresponding number of stuff bitsincluded in a corresponding data frame of the data communicationchannel.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the performance informationincludes a plurality of the traffic measurements.
 6. The system of claim4, wherein each corresponding data frame has the same fixed sizepayload.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the performance informationis based at least in part on a size of the fixed size payload.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the count of stuff bits is associated with atransport utilization measurement.
 9. A memory comprising: a trafficportion of a user data frame that is used to handle communication ofuser data; and an unused portion of the user data frame that includes aset of stuff bits arranged in a detectible pattern, wherein a count ofthe stuff bits is associated with a measure of transport utilization ofa data communication channel over which the user data frame istransported.
 10. The memory of claim 9, wherein the user data frame hasa fixed size data payload.
 11. The memory of claim 10, wherein themeasure of transport utilization is based at least in part on a size ofthe fixed size data payload.
 12. A communication system comprising: adata multiplexing device, the data multiplexing device receiving a firstinput data channel and providing a multiplexed output, wherein the firstinput data channel is associated with a first user data frame, the firstuser data frame including a fixed size data payload, a first trafficportion including first user data; and a first unused portion thatincludes a first set of stuff bits; and an element manager responsive tothe data multiplexing device, wherein the element manager provides ameasurement report that includes an indication of a utilizationassociated with the first input data channel, the indication based on acount of the first set of stuff bits.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the count of the first set of stuff bits is inverselyproportional to the utilization associated with the first input datachannel.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein the data multiplexingdevice is configured to fill the first unused portion by adding aquantity of stuff bits to the first user data frame to occupy eachpreviously unoccupied data bit of the first unused portion.
 15. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the indication of the utilization associatedwith the first input data channel is based on a size of the fixed sizedata payload.
 16. The system of claim 12, wherein the data multiplexingdevice receives a second input data channel.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the second input data channel is associated with a second userdata frame comprising: a second traffic portion including second userdata; and a second unused portion that includes a second set of stuffbits.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the element manager isconfigured to provide an indication of a second utilization associatedwith the second input data channel, wherein the indication of the secondutilization is based on a count of the second set of stuff bits.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein the measurement report includes theindication of the utilization and the indication of the secondutilization.
 20. The system of claim 12, wherein the indication of theutilization is based on a plurality of data frames transmitted over atime period.